This report provides an overview of kindergarten readiness of six Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) kindergarten cohorts from the 2016-17 to the 2021-22 school year. This report is accompanied by the Annual Digest of City Schools Kindergarten Statistics, 2022 Edition (Baltimore Education Research Consortium [BERC], 2022), which provides…

In 2010, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Education Program has established the Deeper Learning Initiative, which focuses on students' development of deeper learning skills (i.e., the mastery of core academic content, critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and "learn-how-to-learn" skills). Two test…

Comprehension tests are often used interchangeably, suggesting an implicit assumption that they are all measuring the same thing. We examine the validity of this assumption by comparing some of the most popular reading comprehension measures used in research and clinical practice in the United States: the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT), the two…

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

This study established criterion-related validity for the Reading Passages Subtest of a locally developed curriculum-based measurement (CBM) instrument, with cross-validation across reading curricula and criterion measures. Correlations of 479 primary grade students' reading scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills provided support for CBM…

Designed to assess the ability to interpret the major types of figurative language or tropes such as similes, metaphors, proverbs, and personification, the two forms of this instrument each contain 50 items in a two-part, multiple-choice format. Part I tests the meaning of figures of speech in isolation; part II tests the meaning in the context of…

Thirty-two children aged 7 to 12 participated in a study to determine the reliability of the Ekwall Reading Inventory (ERI) and the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI). The children were randomly assigned to take one of the two inventories, which were administered by four different specially trained teachers. The study used a test-retest design, in…

Designed to be used along with a multiple-choice instrument for further assessment of the immediate and delayed comprehension of a 1,300 word expository passage on the Kalahari Desert, the instrument is a 35-item posttest, divided into five clusters, each composed of six to eight lettered phrases. Twenty verbatim phrases from the passage are…

Designed to assess immediate and delayed comprehension of expository prose, this instrument is a 40-item multiple-choice test composed of open-ended stems, each followed by four nonoverlapping choices. Control of content of the items was based upon an analysis of the accompanying 1,300-word passage on the Kalahari Desert. Validity, reliability,…

Designed to assess a reader's achievement in various reading skills for the purpose of instructional placement, the instrument contains three forms (A, B, C), each of which contains 50 items. The items test comprehension of idioms and direct statements, with emphasis on drawing inferences. Administration time for each test is 25 minutes. (This…

To analyze the validity of W. L. Taylor's cloze testing methodology, this paper first examines three areas contributing to Taylor's thinking: communications theory, the psychology of speech and communication, and the theory of dispositional mechanisms--or nonessential words--in speech. It then evaluates Taylor's research to determine how he…

Issues raised in responses to Linda Siegel's paper (EC221505) on the relationship between intelligence test scores and learning disabilities are addressed. Discussed are the nature of intelligence, classification of learning disabilities by discrepancy between intelligence test scores and achievement scores, the existence of learning disabilities,…

Applicable to all levels of education, the eight digests and four FAST (Focused Access to Selected Topics) bibliographies included in this special collection focus on testing and assessment in the fields of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The material in this special collection is designed for use by teachers, students, administrators,…

Three mildly retarded 11 year olds were administered reading probes for a period of 4 months, and number of words read correctly were compared to student performance on a criterion-referenced mastery test. Findings questioned whether such probes alone yield sufficient information for making program decisions during the course of instruction.…

This study examined the criterion-related validity of oral reading fluency (ORF), number of words read correctly per minute, with 64 regular, remedial, and special education elementary-level students. Comparison with two miscue-based assessment measures did not support modification of traditional ORF but did suggest practical value of selected…